The ascendance of Grace Mugabe, the wife of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, to a powerful position in the Zanu-PF Women’s League has, together with her son’s erratic behaviour, become a hot political potato.
Seen from the perspective of the bruising succession battle in Zanu-PF, her unanimous election as the secretary of the party’s women league is believed by observers as a means to ultimately catapult her to the presidency.
The position allows her a place in the party’s powerful politburo and is believed Mugabe himself was grooming her to take over the reins. The party would hold its elective congress in December where Mugabe, 90, is expected to announce his retirement.
This came hard on the heels of the reported erratic behaviour of her son, Chatunga, 17, who was expelled from an elite private school. He is reported to be engaged in binge drinking, has lack of discipline and problematic at school.
The oldest son Robert Jnr, 23, was also reported to be struggling with schooling and had not passed his A levels. However, he was also reported to harbour ambitions to take over the reins of Zanu-PF youth league, a move that has put him on a collision with the current incumbent Absalom Sikhosana.
The controversial Grace, 49, apparently described her election as God’s work: “I am overwhelmed and I’m shaking right now. I cannot believe this is what you have decided but this is God’s work and those speaking here are mouthpieces of God.”
She warned her opponents that she may if necessary use her “fists and stones” to push her way in politics. But Zimbabwean-born political analyst DiniZulu Macaphulana believed Grace’s sudden emergence into mainstream politics should concern every Zimbabwean national.
“She brings into Zimbabwean politics a certain kind of fundamentalism and extremism that should make us very afraid. Notice now she couches her nomination in religious terms.
She comes not only to protect her own interests but also of other individuals from the business and religious world,” Macaphulana reportedly said.
russelm@thenewage.co.za